Nerdist Podcast

John K.

Share:

Nerdist Podcast: John K.

Share:

The amazing John Kricfalusi comes to our Nerdmelt space with Chris and Jonah to talk about Ren & Stimpy, working with Ralph Bakshi, Laverne & Shirley in Space and the time he and Bob Clampett hijacked a parade float. PLUS! More George Liquor? Hopefully! Go to Kickstarter to support Cans Without Labels right now!

Goddamned GREAT podcast, one of my favorite episodes (being biased since I work in the industry). Love hearing the old school stories that show how an animator’s personality truly shows in their work. And Chris, your knowledge of animation history and your love of Ren & Stimpy made your interview all the better.

a HUGE inspiration and artistic influence on my work! Whenever I do lip synch, I try to think in a John K. mindset and REALLY put some expression and detail into it. I look forward to listening to this during production tomorrow morning. Feel free to click on my name here to view some of my work… Not that I’m plugging myself or anything.

Really excellent episode. If you like this podcast, I recommend you read John K’s blog. Just like this episode, John uses his blog to share all of his wisdom and experience. The man is a sage and an American treasure.

My first comment, but I had to jump in on this episode. This was a great interview, and it was fantastic to hear. In a broader sense, John K is one of the great heroes of modern times – I remember, like Chris, when those first episodes hit the air, and was so blown away by them that they changed my perception of what was possible in television, let alone animation. Quotes from ‘Space Madness’, to this day, are still a part of our language (“It is not I who is crazy …”).

that was just EPIC. I would recommend having more animation directors as guests, but I can’t think of anyone who would be NEARLY as interesting…. Except Matt Groening, maybe. Thanks for another great episode.

Yeah, there’s a cartoon that was long dead and buried in the recesses of my mind until this podcast. Um…thanks?

To the artists posting in this comment thread – I’ve an idea for a Hostful pic but I haven’t any skills to create it. It’s based on the Charlie’s Angels logo seen here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie%27s_Angels
In the left hand position would be Chris’s silhouette either holding an iPhone (don’t forget the white earbuds) or a giant latte, in the right hand position would be Jonah talking into a microphone with the cord dangling down, and standing proud and tall in the center position would be Matt holding a burrito aloft. Rather than flames behind them, there’s the red Nerdist logo on a yellow background. The white caption could be either “Nerdist Angels” or “Nerdist Podcast.” I’d make it myself but I have zero artistic skills. If any artist reading this wants to take a stab at my idea, go crazy with your bad self.

@toonsmyth -Good question. I think it was mentioned in an earlier thread, but I can’t recall which one. Maybe go to a hostful episode, click on the artist’s name at the base of the picture and ask them how they did it?

Besides the total insanity of the characters, it was the throwback to mid-century modern art and design (albeit kitchy) in Ren & Stimpy had that appealed to me. Like a lot of the Chuck Jones cartoons I remember.

Stuff designed before the space race, imaging what the future would be like. But John kept that rather bizarre look and feel in a post-space race world. Space Madness and Black Hole the obvious examples.

Even the music and sound effects made it seem natural that we should be sitting in front of an old Predicta TV set, watching the show.

Plus, just the catch-phrases that came out of the show:

“Listen, you eediot….”

“YOU SICK LITTLE MONKEY!”

“You look like a man who could really use some rubber nipples.”

“Calll the poliiiiiice….”

Ren & Stimpy was the beginning of the inmates running the asylum. As animators on the classics started their own studios and rebelled against their prior creations, making new characters and stories… it was a wonderful rebirth of animation.

Guilty pleasure: I loved Fonz and the Happy Days Gang when I was a kid. I used to press the boom-box against the TV speaker every Saturday morning and record them on cassette, then play them back incessantly.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for another great Nerdist podcast that licked my creamy center and oh so nutty chocolate covering. No words describe the joy I feel for my collection of incurable diseases… and – possibly even more so – the genius of John K. Much like you, Chris, Ren and Stimpy had an indelible impact on shaping my sense of humor and even more importantly, redefining and reinventing animation for me. Having grown up with animation in the form of Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, etc, it was already a fantastic source of entertainment for me, and John K. just took that world to a whole new level. I’m heading over to the kickstarter page RIGHT NOW!

Chris, the drawing arm thing you mentioned is not some fictional idea even if John did or didn’t mention it. I’m sure at some point he has. It’s kind of standard. If you what to draw a straight line or better curve line freehand, you use your forearm to draw with not your wrist. Thanks, just an artist wannabe art nerding out on you.

That was amazing. I’d read & heard about the amazing shenanigans the inmates of WB’s Termite Terrace would pull on each other(& Schlesinger), and that Clampett was considered a bit unhinged, even by them, but that parade story was perfect. Especially as I had a Beany & Cecil board game(based on the cartoon), as a kid, complete with a pull-string talk-box Cecil puppet that said things like, “Ahm comin’ Beany!” and, “Garsh–whatta big mouth!”

John K: Overrated jerk with delusions-of-grandeur about his animation and his “humor”,and what makes great animation. His style is overkill, and the writing and plots of a ten year old.His stuff makes the old WB cartoons of the ’30s/’40s look like Ingmar Bergman.